Brussels, 12/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing to establish harmonised rules in the EU for calculating greenhouse gas emissions and removals by the forestry and agriculture sectors. Its proposal for a decision, adopted by written procedure on 12 March, seeks to incorporate into Community law the decision on land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) adopted by the international community in Durban at the United Nations climate conference in Durban (COP 17) in December of last year. The accounting rules proposed by the Commission relate to the last two major sectors without common EU-wide rules for calculating emissions and contribution to tackling climate change.
“This is the first step to incorporate these sectors into the EU's reduction efforts. In Durban, all countries agreed revised accounting rules for these sectors. The EU is now delivering with this proposal. The proposal will also contribute to protect biodiversity and water resources, support rural development and have a more climate-friendly agriculture”, said Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard.
The challenge is massive as forests and agricultural lands cover more than three-quarters of the territory of the EU and naturally hold large stocks of carbon, preventing its escape into the atmosphere. Increasing this “trapped” carbon by just 0.1 percentage point - for example, through improved forest or grassland management - would remove greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of 100 million cars from the atmosphere.
Yet until now, however, the efforts of farmers and forest owners and their good practice aimed at securing carbon stored in forests and soils, have not been recognised or only been partly so. The reason for this has been the challenges that come with collecting robust carbon data from forests and soils and the lack of common rules on how to account for emissions and removals. Transposing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) revised accounting rules from soils and forests will give the EU the opportunity to close the gap in common accounting in its climate policy and to reward farmers for their contribution in the fight against climate change within the common agricultural policy (CAP).
Under the terms of the proposal, member states will have to adopt action plans on how they will increase removals of carbon and decrease emissions of greenhouse gases in forests and soils throughout the EU. The proposal does not include a commitment for national emission reduction targets for these sectors. This may come later once the accounting rules have proved themselves to be robust. (AN/transl.rt)